Journal of Environmental Management 151 (2015) 221e232

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Journal of Environmental Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jenvman

Review

Development of sludge-based adsorbents: Preparation,

characterization, utilization and its feasibility assessment
Guoren Xu a, *, Xin Yang a, Ludovico Spinosa b
a
State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China
b
CNR, Via G. Bozzi, 5, 70121 Bari, Italy

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The increasing generation of sludge and its subsequent treatment are very sensitive environmental
Received 10 April 2014 problems. For a more stable and sustainable treatment of sludge, there have been many studies,
Received in revised form including the conversion of sludge into sludge-based adsorbents (SBAs) for pollutants removal. In this
31 July 2014
review, current SBAs preparation conditions and use as adsorbent for contaminant removal in water
Accepted 1 August 2014
Available online 8 January 2015
treatment are summarized and discussed. Carbonization, physical activation and chemical activation are
three common preparation methods. The controlling key parameters include pyrolysis temperature,
dwell time, heating rate, activator and feedstock type. The efficacy of SBAs in contaminant adsorption
Keywords:
Pollutants removal
depends on their surface area, pore size distribution, surface functional groups and ion-exchange ca-
Sludge pacity. It has been demonstrated that SBAs can attain high uptakes of dyes and metal ions due to their
Sludge-based adsorbents high cation exchange capacity; whereas the strong antibiotics adsorption performance of SBAs derives
Water treatment from high degree of mesoporosity. In addition, thermal treatment significantly stabilizes heavy metals
contained in sludge. The paper also discusses the economic feasibility and environmental safety of
preparation and application of SBAs. Further research will include investigations on the migration and
transformation of element in sludge by thermal treatment, more economical and efficient chemical
activation reagents, obtaining SBAs for designated application, combination of coagulation and SBAs
adsorption, regeneration of SBAs and full-scale tests.
© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Common options of sludge management include landfilling

Sludge is a byproduct of water and wastewater treatment pro-
cesses and contains amounts of heavy metals, organic pollutants
and pathogenic microorganisms. Three main kinds of sludge are
sewage sludge, industrial sludge and waterworks sludge. Sewage
sludge is a mixture of exhausted biomass generated from the aer-
obic and anaerobic digestion of the organic constituents in
municipal/urban sewage and inorganic materials, such as sand and
metal oxides. Industrial sludge includes wastes from industry sites
whose composition varies widely from industry to industry (e.g.
paper mill sludge contains plenty of lignocellulose, while the fer-
tilizer industry sludge is rich in carbonaceous slurry). Waterworks
sludge is mainly from the sedimentation tank or clarifier sludge
water and filter backwash water, and amounts to about 4e7% of the
total amount of water (Hossain et al., 2011).
* Corresponding author. Tel./fax: þ86 0451 86282559.
E-mail address: xgr@hit.edu.cn (G. Xu).
(Diamantis et al., 2013), application to farmland and forestry and
thermal treatment, e.g. incineration. Agricultural use of sewage
sludge has been the traditional approach for sludge treatment;
however, sludge is rich of metals, pathogens and low concentration
antibiotics, which are of primary concern in limiting its potential
use as a fertilizer and may cause secondary pollution problems in
the environment.
Sludge is carbonaceous in nature, and its conversion to adsor-
bents might be a promising way, not merely to ecofriendly solve the
problem of secondary pollution, but also to allow its reuse in water
treatment applications. In previous studies, many researchers
(Bandosz and Block, 2006; Hwang et al., 2008; Qian et al., 2009)
have used sewage and industrial sludge to prepare sludge-based
adsorbents (SBAs) which are low-cost alternatives of activated
carbon (Pollard et al., 1992) and have wide and efficient applica-
tions in adsorbing different dyes, organic compounds, heavy metals
and even in removing gaseous contaminants.
Aim of this paper is to review the preparation methods of
SBAs, with an emphasis on the techniques of carbonization and

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2014.08.001
0301-4797/© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
222 G. Xu et al. / Journal of Environmental Management 151 (2015) 221e232

activation of both industrial and sewage sludge. Some studies
used dewatered sewage sludge (Dhaouadi and Henni, 2009;
Kayranli, 2011), powered waste sludge (Pamukoglu and Kargi,
2007a,b, 2009) and sludge ash (Wajima and Munakata, 2011) as
adsorbents. As this method does not include thermal treatment
process, it is not mentioned in this review. Four aspects are
considered in this study: (1) influence of thermal treatment pa-
rameters, such as pyrolysis temperature, heating rate, dwell time,
activator selection, activator concentration, etc.; (2) environ-
mental safety; (3) application of SBAs in water treatment; (4)
economic feasibility. A schematic diagram of aspects considered
in this review is shown in Fig. 1.
2. Effects of preparation conditions on SBAs' structure and
chemistry surface characteristics
The efficacy of SBAs in contaminant removal is determined by its
structure and surface chemistry characteristics. The widely used
method of evaluating structure of an adsorbent is the Bru-
nauereEmmetteTeller (BET) surface area (Brunauer et al., 1938).
Micropore volume (Vm) was obtained by t-plot method, while
macropore and mesopore volumes, and pore size distribution were
calculated by the Barrette Joynere Halenda (BJH) method. This
section discusses the effects of pyrolysis conditions on the SBAs'
structure.

Fig. 1. Schematic research pathway of sludge-based adsorbent including preparation, characterization, utilization and feasibility assessment.
 G. Xu et al. / Journal of Environmental Management 151 (2015) 221e232 223

Table 1
Pore structure characteristics of SBAs produced by carbonization.

Sludge type Carbonization Post SBET Vt Vm Reference

treatment (m2/g) (cm3/g) (cm3/g)
Temperature ( C) Dwell time (h) Heating rate ( C/min)

WWTP 450 1.5 5 HCl 15 0.02 NA Velghe et al., 2012

Sludge&DFC 450 1.5 5 HCl 60 0.1 NA
ES 950 1.0 10 NA 127 0.158 0.054 Kante et al., 2008
ES 500 1.0 10 H2O 19.6 NA NA Bhatnagar and Minocha, 2009
PMS 650 2.0 3 NA 275 0.017 0.011 Me
ndez et al., 2009a,b
650 2.0 10 NA 245 0.015 0.001
WWTP 650 0.5 40 NA 60 0.04 0.05 Rozada et al., 2008
SS & WOS 650 0.5 10 NA 108 0.043 0.313 Ding et al., 2012
950 0.5 10 NA 192 0.077 0.279

WWTP: wastewater treatment plant; DFC: Disposal filter cake; WOS: waste oil sludge; ES: electroplating sludge; PMS: paper mill sludge; SS: sewage sludge; SBET: BET surface
area; Vt: total pore volume; Vm: micropore volume.

2.1. Carbonization
There are several factors in carbonization that affect the physical
and chemical characteristics of an adsorbent, such as pyrolysis tem-
perature, dwell time, heating rate and feedstock type. Table 1 shows
the BET surface areas and pore structures of adsorbents attained from
the carbonization of sludge alone or a mixture of sludges.
2.1.1. Pyrolysis temperature
Pyrolysis temperature plays a significant role in changing char-
acteristics of the adsorbents produced from sewage sludge and in-
dustrial sludge. It was found that as pyrolysis temperature increased,
the ash content of SBAs increased while the yield of SBAs decreased

nchez et al., 2009; Hossain et al., 2011). This might be attributed to
(Sa
the devolatilization of the solid hydrocarbons and the integrant
gasification of the carbonaceous residues in the adsorbents at high
temperature (Zhang et al., 2011). Pyrolysis temperature also has an
effect on the surface acidity and basicity of adsorbents. Generally, the
adsorbent produced at low temperature was acidic whereas at high
temperature was alkaline (Hossain et al., 2011). Because that high
temperature (>500  C) treatment released sodium oxide (Me
ndez
et al., 2009a,b), which increased the level of basicity.
Morphology and surface structural changes in SBAs are also
influenced by pyrolysis temperature. In general, the BET surface
area and pore volume surface area increase with temperature.
However, when temperature is too high, the porous structure is
destroyed and further porosity development inhibited through the
combination of mesopore (Mahapatra et al., 2012). High carbon-
ization temperature may be responsible for an increase in surface
structure due to an increasing degree of aromatization and rear-
rangement in nitrogen chemistry (Kante et al., 2008). It was found
that carbonization increased the porosity through mass loss during
thermal decomposition and volatile matter product evolution
(Hossain et al., 2011). In addition, high moisture content of wet
sewage sludge generated a steam-rich atmosphere at high tem-
perature (Zhang et al., 2011), leading to a partial gasification of the
solid char, which could boost the creation of micropore (<2 nm in
diameter). However, when temperature is too high, there is a
decrease in surface area probably due to the destruction of porous
structure and development of deformation, cracking or blockage of
micropores in SBAs (Mahapatra et al., 2012).
Reported optimum carbonization temperatures for maximizing
the BET surface areas are 450  C, 500  C, 550  C, 650  C and 950  C
(Table 1). Above discrepancies could be explained in terms of var-
iations in sludge composition.
2.1.2. Dwell time
Studies indicated that a higher carbonization temperature in-
volves a shorter dwell time. At 500  C and 650  C, the optimum
dwell times measured by Yilmaz et al. (2011) and Me
ndez et al.
(2009a,b) were 240 min and 120 min, respectively. At 950  C,
both Kante et al. (2008) and Ding et al. (2012) suggested 60 min.
Kante et al. (2008) also found that at 650  C, the micropore of SBAs
remained constant with an increase of dwell time, while mesopore
and surface area decreased. Seredych and Bandosz (2007)
demonstrated that, at the same carbonization temperature, the
micropore volume of SBAs decreased by increasing dwell time.
2.1.3. Heating rate
As shown in Table 1, heating rates reported in literature include
3  C/min, 5  C/min, 10  C/min, 20  C/min and 40  C/min. It was
found that higher heating rate improved the yield and carbon
content of SBAs, but decreased the hydrogen content in the ad-

ndez et al. (2009a,b) proposed that
sorbents (Liu et al., 2009). Me
the BET surface area increased when the heating rate decreased
from 10 to 3  C/min, probably due to larger residence time of
samples during the pyrolysis processes.
2.1.4. Feedstock type
According to several studies (Ding et al., 2012; Ren et al., 2012;
Velghe et al., 2012), improved porosities from carbonized sludge
can be obtained through mixing of sludge with a relatively high
carbon content material, such as waste oil sludge, leaf litter,
disposal filter cake and solid residue of pyrolyzed tyres.
Experiment by Kante et al. (2008) indicated that the addition of
waste oil sludge in sewage sludge (mass ratio 1:1) improved BET
surface areas and micropores volume after carbonization, due to
the oil decomposition/volatilization and the formation of hydrox-
ides during pyrolysis. Velghe et al. (2012) found that the adsorbent
attained from the mixture of sewage sludge and filter cake (mass
ratio 85:15) exhibited higher BET surface area (60 m2/g) than
sewage sludge-based adsorbents (15 m2/g).
2.2. Physical activation
Physical activation processes usually consist of two steps:
carbonization at a relatively low temperature (typically
400e700  C) in presence of nitrogen or helium to break down the
cross-linkage between carbon atoms, and activation with gas at a
high temperature (800e1200  C) for further development of the
SBAs' porosity, having the activation gases greatest impact. Lots of
activation agents are reported in literature, including N2, CO2,
steam, O2/Air, etc. In general, steam and CO2 are the most
commonly used activation gases. Table 2 presents a summary of
characteristics of SBAs activated by different conditions.
224 G. Xu et al. / Journal of Environmental Management 151 (2015) 221e232

Table 2
Pore structure characteristics of SBAs produced by physical activation.

Sludge type Carbonization Activation Post SBET Vt (cm3/g) Vm Reference

treatment (m2/g) (cm3/g)
Temperature Dwell Heating Activator Temperature Flow Dwell Heating
( C) time rate gas ( C) rate time rate
(h) ( C/min) (mL/min) (h) ( C/min)

Cosmetics Not carbonized CO2 800 100 2.0 10 HCl 94 0.04 NA Monsalvo
sludge et al., 2011
Not carbonized Air 400 100 2.0 10 HCl 92 0.06 NA
Cosmetics Not carbonized N2 750 100 0.5 10 H2O 44 NA 0.063 Monsalvo
sludge et al., 2012
PMS Not carbonized O2/Air 650 NA 2.0 3 NA 275 0.061 NA Me
ndez
et al., 2009a,b
Not carbonized O2/Air 650 NA 2.0 10 NA 245 0.055 NA
PMS Not carbonized CO2 600 300 1.0 10 NA 17 NA NA Hofman and
Pietrzak, 2012
Not carbonized Steam 600 170 1.0 10 NA 14 NA NA
MFS 500 1.0 10 N2 700 200 1.0 10 H2O 244.6 NA 0.123 Qian
et al., 2009
500 1.0 10 Steam 700 NA 1.0 10 H2O 231.1 NA 0.131
WWTP 950 0.5 10 Steam 900 NA 1.6 10 NA 269.1 NA NA Stüber
et al., 2011
700 1.0 10 Steam 838 NA 1.5 10 NA 244.1 NA NA
WWTP Not carbonized N2 750 NA 0.5 20 NA 34.3 NA NA Jindarom
et al., 2007
Not carbonized CO2 750 NA 0.5 20 NA 60.7 NA NA

WWTP: Wastewater treatment plant; PMS: Paper mill sludge; MFS: methane fermentation sludge.

2.2.1. Steam 2.3.1. Activator kinds and activation temperature

At a given temperature, SBAs produced by steam activation have
larger adsorption capacity and wider pore size distribution than
those produced by CO2 activation. Steam activation could induce
the creation of microporosity and mesoporosity (Ncibi et al., 2009),
and the activation mechanism is the combined effect of devolati-
lization and loss of fixed carbon resulting from the activation re-
action which is water gas reaction (Gonza
lez et al., 2009):
C þ H2O / CO þ H2, with presence of water gas shift
(CO þ H2O / CO2 þ H2) and Boudouard reaction (C þ CO2 / 2CO).
The BET surface areas of SBAs prepared by steam activation rose up
with activation temperature (Foo and Hameed, 2009; Xin-hui et al.,
2011), because the diffusion rate of the water molecules to the
interior was higher, thus developing a wide range of pore network.
However, when the activation temperature exceeded 850  C, more
particles were burnt out and led to a decline of BET surface areas.
2.2.2. CO2
CO2 activation could enhance the porosity of materials by the
gasification of C atoms in the interior of the particle, but relatively
higher temperatures (900e1200  C) and longer dwell time are
required. Jindarom et al. (2007) reported that the gasification
removed carbon atoms from the interior of the particle, leading to
the expansion of opened micropores and the opening up of the
closed micropores. Therefore, a relatively high ash content of raw
material can limit the development of SBAs' porosity during
physical activation. The acidity of SBAs prepared by CO2 activation
decreased with an increase of activation temperature on account of
the degradation of acidic oxygenated surface groups (Hofman and
Pietrzak, 2012).
In chemical activation, activator is expected to be the most
significant factor influencing the activation processes (Smith
et al., 2009). A wide variety of activators can be employed, e.g.
H2SO4, H3PO4, KOH, NaOH, ZnCl2, Fe(NO3)3 and K2CO3, but the
most common used activators include KOH, NaOH, ZnCl2 and
H3PO4.
KOH was proved to be an effective activator in producing SBAs
with high BET surface areas. As shown in Table 3, the highest BET
surface area of KOH-activated SBAs was 1882 m2/g (Lillo-Ro
denas
et al., 2008), obtained through a two-stage method: the sludge
was carbonized prior to its impregnation and activation (KOH/solid
1:1). Unlikely, this method is high energy consuming. Research
found that SBAs produced by one-stage method with KOH also
exhibited high BET surface area (1832 m2/g), but at high KOH to
solids ratio of 3:1 (Monsalvo et al., 2011).
According to previous studies (Marsh and Rodríguez-Reinoso,
2006), the mechanism of KOH-activation is that potassium (K)
forms intercalation compound (carbon and K2O), which infiltrated
to the inside. At high temperature, K2O is reduced to metallic K
atoms, which causes gasification and emission of steam and
carbon-dioxide, thereby, having the advantage of forming pores. In
addition, K atoms consist of metallic potassium vapors, which
broaden the interval between the carbonaceous layers, leading to
the increase of surface areas.
The KOH activation mechanism is represented by the following
reactions (Hwang et al., 2008).
2KOH (s, l) / K2O (s) þ H2O (g)
C (s) þ H2O (g) / H2 (g) þ CO (g)

CO (g) þ H2O (g) / H2 (g) þ CO2 (g)

2.3. Chemical activation
K2O (s) þ CO2 (g) / K2CO3 (s,l)
Factors affecting chemical activation include activation tem-
perature, activator type, activator concentration, and binder addi- K2O (s) þ H2 (g) / 2K (l) þ H2O (g)
tion. Table 3 summarizes the important key parameters as resulting
from recently published studies on the subject. 2K2O (s) þ C (s) / 4K (l) þ CO2 (g)
 G. Xu et al. / Journal of Environmental Management 151 (2015) 221e232 225

Table 3
Pore structure characteristics of SBAs produced by chemical activation.

Sludge Carbonization Activation Post SBET Vt Vm Reference

type treatment (m2/g) (cm3/g) (cm3/g)
Temperature Dwell Heating Activator Temperature Mass Dwell Heating
( C) time (h) rate ( C) ratiob time rate
( C/min) (h) ( C/min)

Cosmetics Not carbonized KOH 750 1:1 0.5 10 HCl 950 0.4 0.23 Monsalvo
sludge et al., 2011
Not carbonized KOH 750 3:1 0.5 10 HCl 1832 0.75 0.36
WWTP Not carbonized KOH 500 1:1 1.0 NA H2O 69 NA NA Kaçan and
Kütahyalı, 2012
KOH 500 1:1 1.0 NA HCl 135 NA NA
WWTP 700 0.5 5 KOH 700 1:1 1.0 5 HCl 1882 0.89 0.67 Lillo-Ro
denas
et al., 2008
WWTP Not carbonized NaOH 850 1.25 M 1.5 10 HCl 422 NA NA Hwang et al., 2008
WWTP Not carbonized NaOH 700 1:1 3 NA H2O 139 0.06 NA Go
mez-Pacheco
et al., 2012
WWTP 500 1 5 NaOH 600 1:1 2 5 NaOH 121 0.10 NA Zou et al., 2013
WWTP Not carbonized H3PO4 800 Wa 3M 10 min NA NaOH 291 NA NA Wang et al., 2011a,b
WOS Not carbonized ZnCl2 500 1M 0.5 15 H2O 737 0.21 NA Hsiu-Mei et al., 2009
WWTP Not carbonized ZnCl2 375 5e30% 1.5 NA HCl 270 0.05 NA Ren et al., 2012
WWTP 450 1.0 NA ZnCl2 750 6M 2.0 10 HCl 510 0.16 NA Wen et al., 2011
WWTP Not carbonized ZnCl2 650 1:1 0.5 40 HCl 472 0.04 0.05 Rozada et al., 2008
WWTP Not carbonized 98%H2SO4 650 1:1 0.5 40 HCl NA NA NA Rozada et al., 2007
WWTP Not carbonized K2CO3 800 1:1 1.0 20 H2O 422 NA NA Stüber et al., 2011
WWTP 500 1.5 20 HNO3 750 7M 2 15 NA 273 0.19 0.06 Zhai et al., 2013
MFS Not carbonized Fe(NO3)3 700 2:1 1 10 NA 245 0.24 0.12 Qian et al., 2009

WWTP: Wastewater treatment plant; WOS: waste oil sludge; MFS: methane fermentation sludge.
a
Microwave pyrolysis.
b
Activator/dried sludge.

The NaOH activation mechanism is similar to that of KOH (Zou aromatic compounds, thus increasing the yield of solid phase
et al., 2013): products (Lin et al., 2012).

C (s) þ H2O (g) / H2 (g) þ CO (g)

CO (g) þ H2O (g) / H2 (g) þ CO2 (g)
2NaOH (s) þ CO2 (g) / Na2CO3 (s,l) þ H2O (g)
Na2CO3 (s,l) / Na2O (s) þ CO2 (g) or 2NaOH / Na2O þ H2O (g)
Na2O (s) þ SiO2 (s) / Na2SiO3 (s)
During the activation process, the carbon framework is etched to
generate pores due to the oxidation of the carbon into carbonate
and intercalation of the resulting sodium compounds (Zou et al.,
2013), such as Na2CO3 and Na2SiO3.
ZnCl2 is another effective activator and 757 m2/g was the highest
BET surface area achieved (Tsai et al., 2008). Reported optimum
ZnCl2 activation temperatures are 300  C, 375  C, 500  C and 750  C
(Table 3), depending on the feedstock types. The SBAs prepared by
ZnCl2 activation exhibited a wide pore size distribution. ZnCl2 is
considered to act as dehydrating reagent and tar formation sup-
pressant during the activation processes, to promote the aromati-
zation of the carbon skeleton with the concomitant generation of a
pore structure (Lin et al., 2012). The creation of additional micro-
porosity and mesoporosity can arise by a washing step to remove
entrapped ZnCl2 and ZnO.
The advantage of H3PO4 as activator is the relatively low
activation temperature and costs, although, compared with other
activators, H3PO4 is not effective in producing SBAs with high
surface area. As shown in Table 3, the highest BET surface area of
H3PO4-activated SBAs was merely 290.6 m2/g (Wang et al.,
2011a,b). The effects of H3PO4 during activation processes are
depolymerization, dehydration, redistribution of constituent
biopolymers, especially, promoting the conversion of aliphatic to
2.3.2. Activator concentration
Generally, as the activator concentration increases, the adsorp-
tion capacities and BET surface areas of SBAs increase, because
pores formation is promoted. However, when activator concen-
tration exceeds appropriate values, the adsorption capacities and
BET surface areas of SBAs decreases, because hyper-activation
occurred prior to the demolition of the pore wall, resulting in the
partial destruction of microporosity (Hwang et al., 2008). Low
activator concentration can be nearly ignored (Ren et al., 2012).
The optimum activator concentration depends on the feedstock
type and activator characteristic. A wide range of optimum acti-
vator kinds and concentration are reported in literature. Hwang
et al. (2008) reported that optimum KOH and NaOH activation
concentration were 1 M and 1.25 M, respectively. Ren et al. (2012)
found that the optimum condition was a ZnCl2 content of 20%,
while Mahapatra et al. (2012) considered 2 M ZnCl2 as optimum.
2.3.3. Binder addition
The addition of binders to sludge before chemical activation
processes can enhance granulometry of SBAs, thus allowing the
production of large granules, but have a negative effect on SBAs'
BET surface areas (Ocampo-Pe
rez et al., 2012). The hardened SBAs
can be used in catalytic wet air oxidation process to enhance the
pollution remove rate and reduce cost (Stüber et al., 2011).
Commonly used binders include humic acid, phenolic resin,

mez-
clayey soil, polyvinyl acetate (PVA), lignosulphonate, etc. Go
Pacheco et al. (2012) indicated that humic acid, phenolic resins
and clayey soil, caused a decrease in mesoporosity and macro-
porosity of SBAs. The addition of humic acid and phenolic resins
had little impact on BET surface areas, while clayey soil caused an
obvious decrease. SBAs prepared by steam activation together with
a binder (PVA, 5 wt%) in sludge, had a hardness number of 92e93%,
226 G. Xu et al. / Journal of Environmental Management 151 (2015) 221e232
while those produced without binder were friable with a hardness
number in the range of 57e71% (Julcour Lebigue et al., 2010).
2.4. Post treatment
Post treatment, which includes acid washing, alkaline washing
and distilled water washing, can decrease SBAs' ash contents, and
further improve their BET surface areas and porosity. Acid washing
is widely used to cut down the inorganic content of carbonaceous
material. The high ash content of SBAs can be reduced through the
application of an appropriate ash-dissolution technique such as HCl
washing (Julcour Lebigue et al., 2010). Zou et al. (2013) found that in
acid washing process the basic oxides (Al2O3, Fe2O3, CaO, etc.) were
thoroughly dissolved from adsorbent, leading to the porosity
improvement. For chemical activation, post treatment is also able
to remove the extraneous reaction products and activation agents
as well. Velghe et al. (2012) showed that HCl washing SBAs pre-
pared by carbonized exhibited higher metal ions uptake because
the exchangeable cations of SBAs were replaced by Hþ ions, thus
boosting the cation exchange capacity.
3. Environmental safety assessment
Before discussing the application of SBAs, it is necessary to
address the issue of whether SBAs can cause secondary pollution
during preparation and in application. During the preparation
process, the original sludge contaminations might transfer, trans-
form, volatilize or decompose, involving the formation of new toxic
substances. Zhang et al. (2011) found that high temperature in the
pyrolysis of wet sewage sludge process caused a toxic tar rich in
PAHs. Chiang et al. (2012) evaluated the exhaust characteristics
during the pyrolysis of sewage sludge and ZnCl2 activated sludge.
High pyrolysis temperature and activator concentration caused
high VOCs concentration. For non-ZnCl2 sewage sludge, at various
pyrolysis temperatures ranging from 400 to 700  C, exhaust con-
centration fractions of VOC groups were approximately 65e71%
oxygenated VOCs, 18e21% chlorinated VOCs, 4e6% aromatic VOCs,
and 6e10% acrylonitrile and cyclohexane. The addition of ZnCl2
improved the chlorinated VOCs concentration of pyrolytic exhaust
to more than 10 times of that of the non-ZnCl2 sludge at the same
conditions. During the pyrolysis of ZnCl2 activated sludge, the main
odorous compounds were (CH3)2S and (CH3S)2, that reached con-
centrations of approximately several tenths of ppm in the exhaust.
Therefore, in pyrolysis processes, tail gas treatment should be car-
ried out to reduce environmental risks.
The existence of heavy metals in SBAs is also a limiting factor
in water treatment application. Numerous studies (Ioannidou
and Zabaniotou, 2007; Dias et al., 2007; Klemes et al., 2010; Qi
et al., 2011) have shown that thermal treatment can stabilize
heavy metals in sludge. Table S1 shows the comparison of the
metal leaching ratios for sewage sludge and other thermal resi-
dues reported in literature. It appears that higher temperatures
and longer dwell times can enhance the metal stability. Li et al.
(2011a,b) investigated the metal concentration of the lixivium
of SBAs prepared by steam activation of paper mill sludge; the
main toxic metal was Ba, followed by Cu, Zn, Pb and Cr, which
were lower than the thresholds prescribed in GB 5085.3-2007. Lu
et al. (2012) found that SBAs prepared from sewage sludge
contained heavy metals, such as zinc (1400 mg/kg), copper
(536 mg/kg), lead (107 mg/kg) and nickel (76.5 mg/kg). However,
the extracts of standard TCLP test (<0.01 mg/L) indicated that
these metals were effectively stabilized by pyrolysis. Hence, SBAs
can be applied in water treatment with a negligible risk of toxic
metal leaching.
4. Application of SBAs in water treatment
The fundamentals and mechanism regarding the adsorption of
contaminants by SBAs are discussed in this section.
4.1. Adsorption of antibiotics
Adsorption of antibiotics contaminants from water occurs due to
SBAs high surface area and mesoporosity. Ding et al. (2012) studied
the uptake of SBAs produced from sewage sludge/waste oil sludge
in trace amounts of antibiotics (eleven antibiotics plus two anti-
convulsants). Maximum antibiotics capacities of SBAs ranged
80e300 mg/g, depending on the surface reactivity, polarity and
porosity. Compared with micropores, mesopores played a more
active role in adsorption, especially on the surface of SBAs, because
micropores (<0.9 nm) were probably too small. The main mecha-
nisms are attributed to reactive adsorption and specific polar in-
teractions occurred in the mesopores with hydrophobic carbon-
based origin of pore walls (Ding et al., 2012). Experiment by
Ocampo-Pe
rez et al. (2012) demonstrated that the presence of
carboxylic groups had negative effect on the adsorption rate of
tetracycline. The high tetracycline adsorption capacity of SBAs
(512.1e672.0 mg/g) is attributable to the strong tendency of
tetracycline to form complex ions with some of the metal ions in
the adsorbents (Rivera-Utrilla et al., 2013).
4.2. Adsorption of heavy metals
Adsorbents derived from sewage sludge/industrial sludge can be
used to remove heavy metals from aqueous solution. Table 4
summarizes results of SBAs applications for uptakes of heavy
metal ions.
Chemical activated SBAs were more effective metal adsorbents
due to their high surface area and easy access to their functional
groups. Rozada et al. (2008) indicated that the BET surface area of
ZnCl2 activated SBAs was 8 times greater than that of the carbon-
ized SBAs, correspondingly, the Cu2þ and Cr3þ uptakes of the
former was 5 times higher than those of the latter. SBAs prepared
by chemical activation under different activator conditions show
different adsorption characteristics toward heavy metals. SBAs
prepared by KOH activation showed the highest BET surface area
(Lin et al., 2012), while those prepared by H3PO4 activation acted as
the best adsorbent to remove Cu2þ and Pb2þ from liquid solutions.
The reason was that chemical activation by H3PO4 caused more
acidic functional groups on the SBAs surface; these acidic functional
groups, especially carboxyl groups, can improve the cation ex-
change capacities of SBAs (Seredych and Bandosz, 2006). When
exchangeable cations of the adsorbent were substituted with Hþ
ions, HCl washing of SBAs could enhance metal capture, which
boosted the cation exchange capacity (Velghe et al., 2012).
SBAs can be used to removal cadmium from aqueous solutions,
and the main mechanism is physical and chemical sorption on the
heterogeneous materials (Gutie
rrez-Segura et al., 2012). The
cadmium-laden SBAs, after metal adsorption, can be immobilized
into cement for ultimate disposal (Bhatnagar and Minocha, 2009).
Cadmium did not observably leach from cement with 1e20% sludge
composition, thus suggesting that cadmium had the tendency to
bind in cement-based systems. The main binding mechanism of
cadmium in cement was probably the uptake of cadmium on
calcium-silicate-hydrate (CeSeH). It is considered that solidifica-
tion/stabilization technology offers the possibility of metal-laden
SBAs safe disposal.
Deng et al. (2010) used SBAs obtained from sewage sludge to
remove Cr(VI) in wastewater. Results showed that the saturated
adsorbent can be regenerated using alkali treatment up to 90% of
 G. Xu et al. / Journal of Environmental Management 151 (2015) 221e232 227

Table 4
Metal adsorption capacities of SBAs.

Sludge Carbonization Activation SBET Metal Adsorption Adsorption Metal Adsorption Adsorption Reference
type (m2/g) capacity model capacity model
Temperature Dwell Activator Temperature Dwell
(mg/g) (mg/g)
( C) time ( C) time
(h) (h)

DFC/WWTP 450 1.5 Not activated 60 Cu2þ 18.6 Lang Freu Zn2þ 12.8 Lang Velghe et al., 2012
450 5 Not activated 257 Cu2þ 20.3 Lang Freu Zn2þ 16 Freu
WWTP 600 1 Not activated 60 Cu2þ 6.7 Lang Freu Pb2þ 40.3 Lang Rozada et al., 2008
Hg2þ 64.9 lang Cr3þ 3 Freu
WWTP Not carbonized KOH 600 0.3 131 Pb2þ 49.7 Lang Cu2þ 42 Lang Lin et al., 2012
Not carbonized ZnCl2 600 0.3 125 Pb2þ 47.4 Lang Cu2þ 37.4 Lang
Not carbonized H3PO4 600 0.3 118 Pb2þ 55.9 Lang Cu2þ 46.3 Lang
600 0.3 Not activated 29 Pb2þ 41 Lang Cu2þ 31.7 lang
WMS 500 1.0 Not activated 20 Cr3þ 58.5 Lang Bhatnagar and
Minocha, 2009
WWTP Not carbonized H2SO4 650 0.5 NA Cr6þ 9.9 Lang Deng et al., 2010
WWTP 550 2.0 Not activated 25 Pb2þ 30.9 Lang Lu et al., 2012
WWTP Not carbonized Steam 700 1.0 212 Cu2þ 87.0 Lang Qian et al., 2009
Not carbonized N2 700 1.0 151 Cu2þ 61.4 Lang
WWTP 800Wa 10min 48 Cu2þ 3.9 Lang Wang et al., 2011a,b
Not carbonized ZnCl2 800Wa 10min 377 Cu2þ 10.6 Lang
WWTP Not carbonized H3PO4 800Wa 10min 291 Cu2þ 7.7 Lang Wang et al., 2011a,b
WWTP 800 1.0 Not activated 63 Cu2þ 277 Lang Rio et al., 2005

WWTP: wastewater treatment plant; DFC: disposal filter cake; WMS: waste metal sludge.
a
Microwave pyrolysis.

regeneration ratio. Agrafioti et al. (2014) found that SBAs could
remove 90% Cr(VI) from the aqueous solution due to its high Fe2O3
content. The dominating mechanism for Cr(VI) adsorption on SBAs
is considered to consist of two parts: (i) the adsorption of Cr(VI),
and (ii) the subsequent reduction of adsorbed Cr(VI) to Cr(III)
(Mohan et al., 2011). Cr(III) can be adsorbed again by surface
complexation and precipitation processes (Li et al., 2012a,b; Gong
et al., 2013). Hence, SBAs enhances the removal of toxic hex-
avalent chromium to less toxic trivalent chromium in water.
4.2.1. Adsorption of Cu2þ ions
As shown in Table 4, copper showed greater affinity to carbon-
ized SBAs than other divalent metals. The highest Cu2þ adsorption
capacity of SBAs was 277 mg/g, in spite of its low BET surface area
(63 m2/g) (Rio et al., 2005). Numerous studies (Ong et al., 2003;
Me
ndez et al., 2009a,b) have shown that the high copper ions
adsorption capacity of carbonized SBAs can be attributed to the
cation exchange and the formation of surface complexes between
Cu2þ and active functional groups (eCOOH and eOH) on SBAs.
Experiments by Velghe et al. (2012) indicated that fast pyrolysis
and low pyrolysis temperature could improve the cation exchange
capacity of SBAs. Qian et al. (2009) have shown that the main Cu2þ
ions adsorption mechanism of iron-containing adsorbent obtained
at 700  C, was metal exchange with H, Ca and K ions, surface pre-
cipitation and binding with active sites on the surface of iron (hydr)
oxides at various pH values.
Another factor affecting copper ions uptake is pH. Pamukoglu
and Kargi (2007c) found that the Cu2þ removal was negligible at
pH  3, but increased at pH ranging from 3 to 6, because more
negative charges or zeta potentials on the adsorbent surfaces
attracted Cu2þ ions with higher pH. At pH  6, copper ions
precipitated in form of Cu(OH)2 leading to fast removal of Cu2þ ions
from solution. Therefore, the optimum pH is 5.
4.2.2. Adsorption of Pb2þ ions
Mechanisms for lead adsorption by SBAs in an aqueous system
were studied by Lu et al. (2012); in addition, the contribution of
each mechanism to lead adsorption capacities at pH 2e5 was also
explained. The lead adsorption capacities increased with pH, and
the maximum (30.88 mg/g) was reached at pH 5. Lead removal
mechanisms include metal exchange with Naþ and Kþ, ion-
exchange with Ca2þ and Mg2þ, surface complexation with
carboxyl and hydroxyl function groups, and chemical precipitation
which was merely formed at pH  4. The main mechanisms were
ion-exchange with Ca2þ and Mg2þ ions, and the coordination of
Pb2þ with hydroxyl and carboxyl functional groups, which was
40.4e52.3% and 38.2e42.3% of the total captured lead at pH 2e5,
respectively. The contribution of Pb2þ exchange with Kþ and Naþ
was minimal being only 4.8e8.5% of the total lead adsorption ca-
pacity. A new precipitate was solely found on the cavity surface of
Pb-loaded adsorbent as 5PbO$P2O5$SiO2 (lead phosphate silicate)
at pH 5.
4.3. Adsorption of dyes
Synthetic dyes are widely used as food additive, and in paper,
leather, textile, plastics, paint, cosmetics and pharmaceutical in-
dustries. Most of them are hard to be decolorized because of their
complex structure and synthetic origin. Research indicated that
SBAs can be used to remove dyes from lipid solution, which are
more effective than commercial activated carbon. Dyes adsorption
capacities of SBAs reported in the literature are summarized in
Table 5.
4.3.1. Methylene blue
Methylene blue is a heterocyclic aromatic chemical compound,
which has many applications in different fields, such as dying silk,
wood and cotton, but can cause permanent injury to the eyes of
human and animals. The highest methylene blue adsorption ca-
pacity (518 mg/g) was obtained by a NaOH activated SBAs (Go
mez-
Pacheco et al., 2012), which exhibited high mesopores volume
(1.54 cm3/g). The methylene blue adsorption capacity of SBAs de-
pends on the degree of mesoporosity and their surface chemistry.
Cai et al. (2009) found that dried sewage sludge exhibiting a
negligible porosity can attain a high methylene blue uptake
(235.3 mg/g). Study by Calvo et al. (2001) showed that the SBAs
exhibited poor levels of methylene blue adsorption which may be
due to their high proportions of micropores. These results prove
that surface chemistry plays an active role in the methylene blue
adsorption. The main mechanism of methylene blue adsorption is
228 G. Xu et al. / Journal of Environmental Management 151 (2015) 221e232

Table 5
Dye adsorption capacities of SBAs.

Sludge Carbonization Activation SBET Dye Adsorption Adsorption Reference

type (m2/g) capacity model
Temperature Dwell Activator Temperature Dwell Flow
(mg/g)
( C) time ( C) time rate
(h) (h) (mL/min)

PMS 300 1.0 Steam 850 0.7 300 280 MB 103.6 Lang Li et al., 2011
RR 24 15.7 Lang
PMS 300 1.0 Steam 850 0.7 300 130e140 MB 263.2 Lang Li et al., 2011a,b
RR 24 34.4 Lang
WWTP 300 0.5 NaOH 700 3.0 e 139 MB 518 Go
mez-Pacheco
et al., 2012
WWTP 700 5 Not activated NA MB 71 Lang Freu Djati Utomo
et al., 2013
PMS Not carbonized N2 800 6.0 500 70 MB 35.2 Lang Hojamberdiev
et al., 2008
WWTP 500 1 NaOH 600 2 N2 60 121 RhB 27.7 Lang Zou et al., 2013
WWTP Not carbonized KOH 600 1 Steam300 382 ABS 14.6 Lang Freu Wang et al., 2008
WOS Not carbonized ZnCl2 500 0.5 e 737 Orange II 162 Lang Freu Hsiu-Mei et al., 2009
CH 87 Lang
WWTP Not carbonized ZnCl2&H2SO4 450 0.5 e 89 RBR 92.6 Lang Liu et al., 2010
WWTP Not carbonized ZnCl2&H2SO4 450 0.5 e 104 RB 145.0 Lang
ES 500 3.0 Not activated NA BR 181.8 Lang Yilmaz et al., 2011
WWTP Not carbonized N2 750 0.5 NA 34 AY 71.4 Lang Jindarom et al., 2007
BB 416.7 Lang
Not carbonized CO2 750 0.5 NA 61 AY 116.3 Lang
BB 588.2 Lang

WWTP: wastewater treatment plant; WOS: waste oil sludge; PMS: paper mill sludge; ES: electroplating sludge; MB: methylene blue; RR 24: reactive red 24; ABS: Acid Brilliant
Scarlet; CH: Chrysophenine; RBR: Reactive Brilliant Red; BR: Bomaplex Red; AY: Acid yellow; BB: Bacic blue.

electrostatic interaction, and the anionic functional groups, phos-
phate and carboxyl group were identified as the binding sites for
the cationic methylene blue. The uptake of methylene blue
increased with the initial pH, whereas decreased with the increase
of temperature (Gobi et al., 2011). Due to that, the adsorption of
methylene blue on SBAs was an exothermic process.
The regeneration of dye-exhausted SBAs was carried out by Li
et al. (2011a,b) to reduce cost. After three times regeneration, the
methylene blue removal rate of regenerated SBAs showed a slight
decline but still reached up to 94.49%. The high methylene blue
adsorption capacity (263.16 mg/g), high regeneration efficiency and
low cost (365 US $/t) of SBAs provided the potential of SBAs for
removing methylene blue from aqueous solutions.
low pH, the positive charge on the solution interface increases and
the adsorbent surface shows positive charged, leading to an in-
crease of anionic dye uptake and a reduction of cationic dye uptake,
with the increase of pH. Li et al. (2011a,b) found that the uptake of
methylene blue (cationic dye) reached a minimum at pH 1 and a
maximum at pH 13. Yilmaz et al. (2011) studied the effect of pH on
the adsorption of Bomaplex Red CR-L (anionic dye) on steam acti-
vated SBAs. The anionic dye adsorption decreased with the increase
of pH in the range 2.0e8.0. The main mechanism of reactive dye-
stuffs adsorption was electrostatic interaction.
4.4. Application of SBAs in catalytic wet air oxidation and Fenton
process

4.3.2. Anionic and cationic dyes
The anionic and cationic dyes adsorption capacities of SBAs
resulted to be strongly influenced by the characteristics of dyes
(Jindarom et al., 2007; Smith et al., 2009), pore structure and sur-
face chemistry of adsorbent materials (Dhaouadi and Henni, 2009;
Kayranli, 2011). The mesoporous channels might supply fast mass
transfer for larger molecules, thus improving dye adsorption
properties (Fan and Zhang, 2008; Hsiu-Mei et al., 2009; Liu et al.,
2010). Cai et al. (2009) and Li et al. (2011a,b) studied the effect of
functional groups on sludge for uptake of anionic and cationic dyes.
The negatively charged functional groups, such as phosphonate and
carboxyl group, were identified as binding sites for cationic dye,
while the positively charged amine groups were considered to bind
anionic dye. Therefore, the high cationic dyes uptake was related to
the strong bonding force between dyes and negatively charged
acidic functional groups.
In addition, pH has an influence on the adsorption process for
anionic and cationic dyes uptake as well, because pH causes the
variation of SBAs' surface chemistry. Generally, at high pH, the
positive charge at the solution interface decreases and the adsor-
bent surface appears to be negatively charged (Gupta and Suhas,
2009; Salleh et al., 2011), so the cationic dye uptake increases and
anionic dye uptake decreases with the increase of pH. In contrast, at
Experiments were performed to evaluate the effects of SBAs in a
hybrid water treatment process based on adsorption and catalytic
wet air oxidation (AD-CWAO) with phenolic compounds as target
pollutant (Julcour Lebigue et al., 2010; Stüber et al., 2011). In this
process, SBAs acted as adsorbents for phenol uptake and as catalyst
for continuous CWAO due to their high metal content. Compared
with commercial activated carbon, the SBAs exhibited a relatively
lower phenol in batch tests (Li et al., 2012a,b), but their perfor-
mance almost matched with that of the commercial activated car-
bon in the AD-CWAO process. The best conversion of o-cresol
oxidation and phenol reached 70% and 40%, respectively. The de-
gree of CO2 formation with respect to compound conversion was as
high as 75e80% for both phenol and o-cresol, close to that of
commercial carbon (80e85%), thus indicating that SBAs was a
powerful catalyst for the destruction of some phenolic compounds.
SBAs prepared by physicochemical activation and carbonization
at 600  C (Gu et al., 2012, 2013a), and showing mesoporous
structure with magnetic property, were applied for the adsorption
and degradation of 1-diazo-2-naphthol-4-sulfonic acid (1,2,4-Acid)
in the presence of H2O2. The pollution removal efficiency reached
96.6% after 260 min Fenton-like (SBAseH2O2) treatment. In
SBAseH2O2 system the carbonaceous phase along with silica con-
tributes to an increase in the dispersion of catalytic centers and an
 G. Xu et al. / Journal of Environmental Management 151 (2015) 221e232
Table 6
Costs of several adsorbents reported in literature.
Adsorbent Cost Reference
(US $/kg)
Commercial 2.0e2.2 Lin and Juang, 2009
activated carbon
Commercial granular 3.3 Gupta et al., 2009
activated carbon
Natural zeolite 0.05e0.8 U.S. Geological Survey, 2012
Peat 0.027e0.028 U.S. Geological Survey, 2005a
Red mud 0.025 Lin and Juang, 2009
Bagasse fly ash 0.02 Lin and Juang, 2009
Sludge-based 0.1e0.2 Bhatnagar et al., 2008;
adsorbents Ahmaruzzaman, 2011;
Wang et al., 2011a,b
Clays 0.04e0.12 U.S. Geological Survey, 2005b
adsorbent to concentrate pollutant, whereas the iron oxide (Fe3O4)
as well as alumina provides the catalytic centers for a Haber-Weiss
initiated reactions (Gu et al., 2012, 2013b).
4.5. Adsorption of phenolic compounds
As shown in Table S2, the phenolic compounds uptake was less
affected by surface area and porous structure of SBAs, but strongly
influenced by surface chemistry. SBAs prepared by Monsalvo et al.
(2012) exhibited relatively low BET surface area (45 m2/g); while
the 4-CP adsorption capacity was 1.36 mmol/g, because adsorbents
with oxygen containing basic functional surface groups can
enhance the capture of phenolic compounds (Lin and Juang, 2009).
The 4-CP adsorption capacity of SBAs decreased with the rise in
carbonization temperature due to a progressive loss of functional-
ities. Higher carbonization temperature can cause narrowing of
micropores or pore entrances, resulting in a decrease of the
micropore surface area accessible to 4-CP (Monsalvo et al., 2012).
4.6. Other contaminants (phosphorus, COD, SCOD, fluoride, oil
slick)
The performance of SBAs in removing other contaminants is
shown in Table S3. Compared with commercial activated carbon,
SBAs, having large amount of macropores and mesopores, espe-
cially abundant acidic surface functional groups, are more effective
for soluble chemical oxygen demand (SCOD) and chemical oxygen
demand (COD) uptakes (Pan et al., 2011). Yu and Zhong (2006)
reported that adsorbents with high mesoporosity were beneficial
for COD removal in wastewater treatment.
In spite of a relatively low BET surface area (23 m2/g), SBAs
prepared by carbonization of paper sludge allowed a high adsorp-
tion of phosphate (2.04 mmol/g), due to their high calcium (14.8%)
and Al2O3 (23.4%) contents, explained in terms of adsorption on the
alumina component and precipitation as Ca-phosphates
(Hojamberdiev et al., 2008). According to Wajima and Munakata
(2011), the removal of phosphorus is due to the amount of reac-
tive sites on the surface of adsorbents. Xu et al. (2005) found that
the coupling of ferric chloride and SBAs (coagulationeadsorption
process) could enhance removal efficiencies of turbidity, UV254,
COD, TP and ferric chloride dose was reduced about 50%.
The SBAs prepared by Vinitnantharat et al. (2010) exhibited the
highest fluoride uptake (0.84 mg/g), which was modified by acetic
acid. After acid treatment, surfaces of SBAs were protonated, thus
enhancing the capture of fluoride. The mechanism of fluoride
adsorption was electrostatic attraction and ligand exchange. SBAs
can be also used to remove oil slick from aqueous solution (Hu et al.,
1999).
229
5. Economic feasibility
The use of sludge as carbon source for the production SBAs
might be an efficient alternative for both, adoption of waste man-
agement practices, and production of low-cost adsorbents (Dias
et al., 2007; Bhatnagar and Sillanp€ aa€, 2010). The two most signifi-
cant factors for the sewage sludge-based adsorbents to evaluate
their economically feasible application are adsorption capacity and
cost. Basically, the adsorption capacity of SBAs is relative if
compared with some standard adsorbent, being it strongly
depending on the nature of adsorbents, initial concentration of the
targeted pollutant and so on. The cost of SBAs depends on various
factors, including local availability, nature of sewage sludge, pro-
cessing required, preparation conditions and both recycle and
lifetime issues. However, costs of adsorbents are rarely reported in
the literature. Tables 4, 5, S2 and S3 summarize efficiencies and
Table 6 presents cost estimates for some of reported SBAs along
with cost of some other adsorbents. Natural zeolite, peat, bagasse
fly ash, red mud and clays are the materials whose cost 0.2 US
$/kg makes them convenient in comparison with commercial
activated carbons which normally cost more than 2.0 US $/kg.
Ahmaruzzaman (2011) indicated that the production of SBAs costs
approximately 0.1e0.2 US $/kg, including all expenses, such as
transportation, chemicals, and electrical energy, which is cheaper
than commercial activated carbon (2.0e2.2 US $/kg). In addition,
the evolved volatiles and gases can be captured and condensed into
biofuel during pyrolysis processes, and can be used as a kind of
renewable energy to further reduce the cost. It is difficult to
compare different adsorbents because of inconsistencies in the data
presentation, so much work is necessary to demonstrate the real
application costs at local level.
6. Conclusions and future perspectives
Sewage sludge-based adsorbents are comparatively new mate-
rials which can be used to remove contaminants from aqueous
phase. In this review preparation and application in water treat-
ment of SBAs have been discussed and their environmental impact
and economic feasibility are assessed. As regards SBAs preparation:
 Pyrolysis conditions and feedstock type are the main factors
affecting SBAs adsorption capacities.
 Carbonization, physical activation and chemical activation are
the most common activation methods, being the last one, using
KOH, the most effective one for producing high BET surface area
SBAs (1882 m2/g).
 Addition of binders in sludge allows the production of large
granules, but negatively influences BET surface areas.
 Post treatment, including acid washing, alkaline washing and
distilled water washing, decreases SBAs' ash content and im-
proves their BET surface area and porosity which strongly affect
adsorption capacities; higher pyrolysis temperatures and longer
dwell times improve the stability of heavy metals. In all cases it
is important to predict the metal stabilization mechanism to
assess the environmental and safety issues. Further, long-term
heavy metal leaching experiments on SBAs application to wa-
ter treatment are needed.
With reference to the application of SBAs in water treatment:
 SBAs use showed to have strong implications on the removal of
phenol and phenolic compounds, heavy metals, antibiotics, dyes
and other organic substances, etc.;
 pH, and accordingly the surface chemistry, of SBAs are signifi-
cant factors in improving their adsorption capacities;
230 G. Xu et al. / Journal of Environmental Management 151 (2015) 221e232
 SBAs could attain high uptakes of dyes and metal ions because of
their high cation exchange capacity, while the strong antibiotics
adsorption performance results from high degree of
mesoporosity.
From the economic point of view, SBAs could replace activated
carbon, as they have equivalent or even greater sorption efficiency
for various contaminants due to a cost-effective production from
sludge. This would make SBAs less expensive compared to activated
carbon. The estimated price for SBAs is about 0.1e0.2 US $/kg,
which is approximately 5e10% of commercially available activated
carbon (2.0e2.2 US $/kg) (Lin and Juang, 2009; Ahmaruzzaman,
2011; Wang et al., 2011a,b).
Converting sewage sludge into SBAs can be considered a
promising effective solution for a safe and beneficial management
of sludge. In particular, all active pathogens in waste materials, such
as animal litter and sewage sludge, will be removed through con-
version to SBAs. In addition, the evolved volatiles and gases can be
captured and condensed into bio oil and biogas during pyrolysis
processes, and used as a source of renewable energy.
However, the possibility that original contaminations of sludge
might transfer, transform, volatilize or decompose, and new toxic
substance form during the preparation processes of SBAs need to be
carefully evaluated. Computer modeling can be used for detailed
knowledge of pollution level of area and solution of environmental
crises (Valipour et al., 2013a,b, 2012, Valipour et al., 2013a,b). Thus,
further research should deal with:
 tail gas treatment in the preparation processes;
 migration and transformation of element in sludge by thermal
treatment;
 searching more economic and efficient chemical activation
reagents;
 obtaining SBAs for a designated application;
 combination of SBAs with other water treatment technology,
e.g. coagulation;
 lowering costs of production by regeneration of SBAs;
 evaluating and assessing economic viability of producing SBAs
on an industrial scale.
Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the
Topic-oriented Program of State Key Laboratory of Urban Water
Resources and Environment (2010DX13), Key Program of the Na-
tional Natural Science Foundation of China (51038003), National
High Technology Research and Development Program of China
(2012AA063508), National High Technology Research and Devel-
opment Program of China (2011AA060906).
Appendix A. Supplementary material
Supplementary material related to this article can be found at
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2014.08.001.
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